The Orange (Calif.) Lutheran star has USC among his early favorites and I get the impression that he's going to stay closer to home:

Insert Charles Dickes' famous opening quote ...

You know Coach Prime has been exposed when a pig farmer from UT can carry College Gameday.

Could next week be another track meet or does SC’s D make everyone on UDUB look like All-America’s? Washington rushed for only 99 yards. Could be an interesting game. In my mind the wheels have come off for SC, but then I look at the scores and stats from around the league and it appears every games a toss up. Arizona (vastly improves defense and offense looking pretty darn good) 27-24 with 1: and change left.

This is how Americans can avoid the "brink of financial meltdown"!

Autoworkers reach a deal with Ford, a breakthrough toward ending strikes against Detroit automakers​

BY TOM KRISHER
Updated 11:09 PM CDT, October 26, 2023

DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union said Wednesday it has reached a tentative contract agreement with Ford that could be a breakthrough toward ending the nearly 6-week-old strikes against Detroit automakers.

The four-year deal, which still has to be approved by 57,000 union members at the company, could bring a close to the union’s series of strikes at targeted factories run by Ford, General Motors and Jeep maker Stellantis.

The Ford deal could set the pattern for agreements with the other two automakers, where workers will remain on strike. The UAW called on all workers at Ford to return to their jobs and said that will put pressure on GM and Stellantis to bargain. Announcements on how to do that will come later.

“We told Ford to pony up, and they did,” President Shawn Fain said in a video address to members. “We won things no one thought possible.” He added that Ford put 50% more money on the table than it did before the strike started on Sept. 15.

UAW Vice President Chuck Browning, the chief negotiator with Ford, said workers will get a 25% general wage increase, plus cost of living raises that will put the pay increase over 30%, to above $40 per hour for top-scale assembly plant workers by the end of the contract.

Previously Ford, Stellantis and General Motors had all offered 23% pay increases. When the talks started Ford offered 9%.

Assembly workers will get 11% upon ratification, almost equal to all of the wage increases workers have seen since 2007, Browning said.

Typically, during past auto strikes, a UAW deal with one automaker has led to the other companies matching it with their own settlements.

GM said in a statement it is “working constructively” with the union to reach an agreement as soon as possible. Stellantis also said it’s committed to reaching a deal “that gets everyone back to work as soon as possible.”

Browning said temporary workers will get more in wage increases than they have over the past 22 years combined. Temporary workers will get raises over 150% and retirees will get annual bonuses, he said.

“Thanks to the power of our members on the picket line and the threat of more strikes to come, we have won the most lucrative agreement per member since Walter Reuther was president,” Browning said. Reuther led the union from 1946 until his death in 1970.

Fain said that the union’s national leadership council of local union presidents and bargaining chairs will travel Sunday to Detroit, where they’ll get a presentation on the agreement and vote on whether to recommend it to members. Sunday evening the union will host a Facebook Live video appearance and later will hold regional meetings to explain the deal to members.

Auto workers strike is over as union as GM reach potential deal​

The United Auto Workers strike is set to end after it agreed to terms of a new contract with the third member of Detroit's Big Three.


United Auto Workers members hold picket signs near a General Motors Assembly Plant in Delta Township, Mich., on Sept. 29.Paul Sancya / AP file

By Marley Jay

The United Auto Workers strike is set to end as the union and General Motors announced a tentative agreement on a new contract Monday, according to sources cited by CNBC.

The pending deal comes just days after similar deals with Ford and Stellantis.

The union announced a framework agreement with Ford on Wednesday, followed by on Saturday by a deal with Stellantis, which makes Ram, Dodge, and Chrysler vehicles.

The pacts must be approved by local UAW leaders and then ratified by a simple majority of each automaker’s union-represented workers. That process will take several days.

About 13,000 UAW members went on strike September 15, following the expiration of their previous contract with the Big Three. That gradually expanded to about 40,000 of the union's 146,000 members walking off the job. That slowed production for each company, with the effects ramping up over time.

GM said last week the strike was costing it $200 million per week.

If members approve the contracts, they will last four and a half years. Union members will get an 11% initial wage increase and a pay bump of 25% over the course of the deal. The new contract also reinstates cost-of-living adjustments, lets workers reach top wages in three years instead of eight, and protects workers' right to strike over plant closures, among other significantly enhanced benefits.

UAW members agreed to give up on cost-of-living adjustments in the wake of the 2007-08 Great Recession, which nearly pushed GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy. That became a major point of contention in the current talks, with UAW President Shawn Fain saying that the automakers were making record profits while their employees struggled with the effects of the worst inflation in 40 years.

Ford and Stellantis workers ended their strike after those agreements were announced, while the union called for more GM employees to walk off the job at the same time it announced its proposed contract with Stellantis.

We deserve this. We are absolutely hot garbage and Lincoln's head needs to roll.

Login to view embedded media
Different format today -- we got Riley for 12 minutes (5 of which was opening comments) and then a bunch of players all at once as a group.

Videos almost uploaded ...

Right here:

https://n.rivals.com/news/usc-lands-major-commitment-from-2026-cb-brandon-lockhart

The deal, which still has to be ratified by UAW members, leaves only General Motors without a contract with the union.

Oct. 28, 2023, 7:16 PM CDT
By Marley Jay

The United Auto Workers union and Stellantis say they've reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, leaving General Motors as the only one of the Big Three automakers without a contract with the union.

The deal, which still has to be ratified by members, follows a six-week strike by more than 14,000 workers at Stellantis assembly plants in Michigan and Ohio, and at parts warehouses across the nation.

“Once again, we have achieved what just weeks ago we were told was impossible,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a written statement. “At Stellantis in particular, we have not only secured a record contract, we have begun to turn the tide in the war on the American working class."

The tentative agreement is patterned off a 4½-year agreement reached between the union and Ford on Wednesday, sources previously told CNBC.

Employees will return to work while the agreement goes through the ratification process, UAW said in a statement Saturday.

"We look forward to welcoming our 43,000 employees back to work and resuming operations to serve our customers and execute our Dare Forward 2030 strategic plan to maintain Stellantis’ position at the forefront of innovation," Stellantis North America COO Mark Stewart said in a written statement Saturday.

In a statement Saturday night, GM said it was "disappointed by the UAW's action in light of the progress we have made."

"We have continued to bargain in good faith with the UAW, and our goal remains to reach an agreement as quickly as possible," GM said.

United Auto Workers signs for a strike are shown at a Stellantis assembly plant in in Sterling Heights, Mich., on Monday

Around 40,000 UAW members have gone on strike since their last contract with GM, Ford and Stellantis expired on Sept. 15. They shut down dozens of factories along the way, including GM's full-size truck plant in Arlington, Texas, on Tuesday.

UAW President Shawn Fain said in a video statement Wednesday that the move was part of a step to get negotiations over the finish line.

The deal, according to UAW, includes 25% in base wage increases through April 2028, and the starting wage will increase to over $30 an hour.

Both the Ford and Stellantis deals include a right to strike over plant closures, according to the union.

"The agreement reinstates major benefits lost during the Great Recession, including Cost-of-Living Allowances and a three-year Wage Progression, as well as killing divisive wage tiers in the union," the UAW said in a statement.

The agreement will need to be ratified by UAW members before it becomes binding, and that process will take time. On Wednesday night, Fain said a national committee will meet to review the Ford deal on Sunday. Local groups will review it after that, and then members will vote on the proposed contract.

Still, the proposal means Ford workers left the picket lines and will soon go back to work.

Talks between the union and Stellantis had appeared to be more contentious than those with GM and Ford. Fain repeatedly criticized Stellantis for what he called outsize profits and CEO pay, and on Friday he said on a livestream that the company was trying to "lowball" the union before throwing a ream of pages, which he said were Stellantis' proposal, in an office trash can.

On Monday, Fain called for workers at Stellantis' Ram 1500 truck plant to go on strike. The company responded that it was "outraged" by the move.

In a statement Saturday, President Joe Biden, who made history as the first sitting president to appear on a picket line, called the contract “groundbreaking.”

“This contract is a testament to the power of unions and collective bargaining to build strong middle-class jobs while helping our most iconic American companies thrive,” Biden said. “The final word on this tentative agreement will ultimately come from UAW Stellantis members themselves in the days and weeks to come.”

The natty dream is over. That’s almost certain after the ND debacle and our generally crappy play. But the PAC 12 title is still very much in play with how wild the PAC 12 is right now. Zona beating Ore St and Utah getting thumped opened things up. With lots of games left to go and upsets possible every week, SC probably only needs to win the last 2 (Ore / UCLA) to make the title game with what everyone else is going to do to each other.

If we lose to Wash, but then beat Ore and UCLA, we end with 2 conference losses. Ore and UCLA would both have two losses at least so we’d have tiebreaker over them. Zona already has 2 so we have tiebreaker over them. We don’t play Ore St but they still have Ore and Wash left so they would just have to lose one of those. Utah has two already but has the win over us, so that’s the only team we have to have get one more loss.

Obviously win all 3 and we’re in (with a teeny tiny playoff hope) or lose 2 or 3 and we’re out and off to the Zaxby bowl with Caleb watching from the sidelines.

I asked Caleb about the pinkie finger last night, specifically about him shaking his hand in pain after he recovered a fumble. This was his response:

"I got my hand hit on the helmet. It was like all of my fingers because he hit exactly when I was going up, so all my fingers are fine, to say the least. I've been ripping the ball the same as I usually do. It was just when you initially stub your toe thing like that, he just hit it and I felt it immediately. But the next play we threw a pass play. It got tipped, but it was going to land right on Zach's chest."

Labor wins bolster Biden’s strategy​

By Jennifer Rubin
Columnist|Follow
October 29, 2023 at 7:45 a.m. EDT

President Biden addresses striking members of the United Auto Workers at a picket line outside a General Motors plant in Belleville, Mich., on Sept. 26. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

Only a few weeks ago, Republicans, pro-business groups and some pundits chided the United Auto Workers for being greedy in their contract demands. They criticized President Biden for walking a picket line with workers. However, with the announcement on Wednesday of a tentative agreement on a generous new contract between Ford and the UAW (followed by word that the UAW was closing in on deals with two other companies), the union’s leadership will reap credit for aggressive bargaining and targeting excessive CEO salaries. Biden will get kudos for helping working Americans maximize earnings.

“Ford has agreed to a 25% increase over the life of the contract, which extends slightly beyond four years,” Bloomberg reported. “That isn’t the 40% sought originally but initial negotiating positions hardly ever make it through talks intact and it is still a huge win for the UAW. In addition, starting wages rise by 68%, according to the UAW, and top wages by a third.”

Other union wins included reinstating cost-of-living allowances, eliminating wage tiers and speeding up wage progression. “We told Ford to pony up, and they did. We won things nobody thought was possible,” UAW President Shawn Fain crowed after the deal was announced.

In a celebratory announcement Thursday that the economy grew 4.9 percent in the third quarter, Biden boasted that “the UAW and Ford reached a historic tentative agreement that provides a record raise to auto workers and is a testament to our strategy for a powerful manufacturing future made in America, with good, union jobs.” (A Treasury Department report released Thursday touted the administration’s gains: “The United States has seen a particularly strong GDP recovery and is on track this year to reach the level that would have been predicted by the pre-pandemic trend. Global labor markets continue to strengthen, and the United States has been especially resilient. U.S. inflation has cooled sooner and more quickly than in other advanced economies.”)

The tentative UAW agreement is not an isolated occurrence for labor. While 2023 saw an uptick in strikes, those work actions paid off. “Across the U.S., labor unions are winning surprisingly large contract settlements as workers have reset their expectations to demand considerably more than they did just a few years ago, and that has in turn pressured many corporations to reset — and increase — the pay packages they are giving in union contracts,” the Guardian noted. “The result has been a wave of impressive — sometimes eye-popping — union contracts over the past year, far more generous than in recent decades.”

These include especially rich deals for employees at UPS (340,000 workers), Kaiser Permanente (85,000) and American Airlines (15,000), as well as writers for Hollywood studios. Labor experts credit the tight labor market, rising worker dissatisfaction in the wake of the pandemic, outsize CEO pay (which provoked outcries from labor) and more-aggressive union negotiation.

“It’s critical to understand that these [auto] strikes are happening at the same time as other historic strikes,” Veena Dubal, a labor expert with the University of California at Irvine, recently told PBS. “Collectively, workers are withholding their labor to change the terms of the bargain — one might even say, the social contract — in the U.S.”

The strikes and major gains for workers also come as workers are making strides in organizing workplaces that previously resisted unions (e.g., Starbucks). When unions strike and make significant gains, other employees become motivated to organize as well. And although unionized workers still represent just about 10 percent of the labor force, gains for unions often spur increases for nonunion workers not only at those employers but also throughout the economy.

Democrats have long attacked “trickle-down” economics as disproportionately benefiting a few at the top while leaving workers behind. Given Biden’s emphasis on building the economy from the “bottom up and the middle out,” these deals signal some success in addressing the enormous disparity between the salaries of CEOs and ordinary workers. Moreover, Biden’s assertion that he is the most pro-union president in history allows him to claim a measure of credit for substantial increases in workers’ take-home pay. In short, these big union wins bolster the perception that “Bidenomics” is delivering as promised.

“President Biden has long believed, contrary to most Wall Street forecasts, that if we could maintain the strong job market while helping to ease inflation, we’d see real wage gains supporting solid consumer spending and strong GDP growth — and that’s precisely what we’ve seen,” Jared Bernstein, head of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, told me. “Add on record gains in median net worth and unprecedented investments in domestic manufacturing, and you get a good picture of Bidenomics at work.”

Clearly, the U.S. economy is doing far better than public perceptions suggest. Maybe it is time to recognize the strength of the country’s economic recovery and some signs (in part due to labor contracts) that prosperity might be shared more widely than it has been in the past.

I think we actually moved up to #22?

President Biden's White House is stuck in a split-screen reality — spiraling war threats overseas and spiraling political problems at home. Both are horror shows for re-election.​

Polling February 2023:

Views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have shifted sharply among Democrats, who said they sympathized more with Palestinians than Israelis for the first time in an annual Gallup survey.

The big picture: Overall, most U.S. adults sympathize more with Israelis (54%) than Palestinians (31%), and two-thirds of Americans continue to view Israel favorably. However, views on the Middle East conflict are becoming increasingly polarized in the U.S. by party and by generation.

Flashback: In 2016, 53% of Democrats said they sympathized more with the Israelis, and 23% with the Palestinians.

• By 2022, that gap had virtually disappeared.
• When Gallup conducted this year's poll from Feb. 1-23, just 38% of Democrats chose the Israelis while 49% said they sympathized more with Palestinians.
• That shift has been driven largely by Americans born after 1980, a narrow plurality of whom are more sympathetic to Palestinians than Israelis. Americans from older generations are more than twice as likely to sympathize with the Israelis.
• The progressive wing of the Democratic caucus in Congress has also grown increasingly vocal about the Palestinian cause.

Between the lines: Some Israeli officials and analysts have argued that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made Israel a partisan issue in Washington by aligning so closely with the Republicans.

Yes, but: A majority of Democrats (56%) continue to view Israel favorably. That's down from 63% last year and far lower than the 82% among Republicans, but is broadly in line with previous findings for Democrats over the two decades Gallup has been conducting the survey.

State of play: There has been no movement toward a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for several years, and serious peace talks are highly unlikely any time soon, particularly with a new hard-right government in office in Israel. Tensions are running high in the occupied West Bank after an escalation in violence in recent weeks.

• Israel's domestic politics are also highly contentious, with President Isaac Herzog warning Wednesday that the country was on brink of civil war as Netanyahu pushes ahead with a judicial overhaul plan that critics say will undermine Israel's democracy.

Methodology: Gallup polled 1,008 American adults across all 50 states, 75% of whom were contacted via cell phone and 25% via landline. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4% at a 95% confidence level.

https://www.axios.com/2023/03/16/democrats-sympathize-more-palestinians-israelis-gallup

The first thing that came to mind is, Only SC could win a game with a score 50-49. If that's not emblematic of this season, nothing is.

I will tell you, though, sometime in the 3rd Qt., I noticed the score was 29-28 SC, which is the score I picked. So, I got that goin' for me, which is nice

After beating up on (future) Purdue on the road last week….
now down 21-6 at the half at home to Oregon.

18 rush attempts for 28 yards (1.6 avg)

obviously, a huge step up in class the pig farmers weren’t prepared for.

Unfortunately, the Biden administration is now cooking the books on unlawful entries but is doing so to make the numbers look smaller and to try to convince the American people and the media that their border security strategy is working.

If you believe the administration, "border encounters remain low" after Title 42 ended on May 11. But don’t fall for this disinformation. The humanitarian and security crisis at the southern border is ongoing, and the overall illegal immigration problem is now far worse than the border numbers show.

EX-BORDER PATROL CHIEF SAYS LETTING MIGRANTS INTO US WAS ‘ONLY AGENDA’ OF DHS WHEN MAYORKAS TOOK OFFICE

Here is the reality the Biden administration is hiding from you and the media are failing to report accurately.

First, it is critical to understand that when DHS claims unlawful entries between the ports of entry are down, they are describing only the illegal aliens apprehended by Border Patrol agents. Intentionally omitted in their communications to the American people are the number of aliens found inadmissible at ports of entry by Office of Field Operations officers. Under U.S. immigration law, it is irrelevant which border officers intercept illegal aliens attempting to enter the U.S. because they are in violation of the same provision of law.

However, the Biden administration sees it differently and considers only illegal aliens "encountered" by Border Patrol agents are breaking the law. Consistent with this flawed philosophy, the administration’s new border strategy announced in January encourages illegal aliens to show up at ports of entry after scheduling an appointment through the CBP One app.

More than 99% of illegal aliens who used the app between January and April were waved through despite lacking a visa. This process is not discouraging illegal immigration but instead is diverting it to a controlled environment. In doing so, it spares the administration the negative optics of tens of thousands of illegal aliens flooding over the border. Nevertheless, the result is the same—the mass release of illegal aliens into American communities.

The combined 204,561 "encounters" in May 2023 were only slightly lower than the roughly 211,000 in April and mark the second-highest number in May ever recorded, trailing only May 2022. Border "encounters" are hardly remaining low, as DHS claims. The key difference is where they are showing up, as the 35,317 inadmissible aliens at the ports of entry in May 2023 is the highest monthly level ever recorded at ports of entry and more than double the 16,766 inadmissible aliens in May 2022.

Since this new policy went into effect in January, DHS has averaged more than 29,000 inadmissible aliens each month. By comparison, the highest number of inadmissible aliens at the ports of entry in a single month during the Trump administration was about 12,000.​

An opponent to get beat by. We beat ourselves before the game even starts. In fact if Cal forfeited the game we still find a way to lose this one. This year's a total waste, time to flush everything down the toilet. The only silver lining is that Riley has irrefutable proof to FIRE Grinch. We need a new DC period. There's just too much damage with Grinch. he must be let go after the game. Just have coach Nua finish out the year.

New House speaker Mike Johnson praised "18th-century values" in speech

It's becoming clearer and clearer that the ONLY person the GOP could agree on for their Speaker is a religious extremist who literally wants to turn the clock back by a good 250 years or so. In a speech, Johnson told a bunch of *high school students* that “we didn’t maintain those 18th-century values [of the Founders], that the republic would not stand, and this is the condition we find ourselves in today”.

This comes on the heels of a different clip emerging of him blaming mass shootings on... “no fault divorce laws," “the sexual revolution”, and “radical feminism."

The person who is second in line for the presidency would fit in great with the Taliban, and is without question, the most extremist House Speaker since before the Civil War.

Judge issues unexpected news on televising Trump’s DC trial

Judge Tanya Chutkan has presented Trump with Sophie's Choice For Idiot Narcissists: do you want your trial televised? On the one hand, you could humiliate yourself on national TV, but on the other hand...you'd be on national TV. Decisions, decisions.

Judge rules Ivanka Trump must testify in Trump fraud lawsuit

At long last, the elusive Ivanka Trump — and all of Trump's adult children — will finally, finally be hauled before a court to testify about the extensive crimes that the Trump Organization committed over the years as part of Attorney General Letitia James' $250 million lawsuit against the Trumps.

The judge did not buy the lawyer's arguments that Ivanka's involvement in the family finances ended the minute she stepped away from the company in 2017 to "work" in the White House and believes that she "was a key participant in some events discussed in the case." It's about time! Now do Jared next!